Objective To investigate the current situation of clinical studies on puerarin for angina pectoris and assess whether it is adequate to provide evidence for clinical practiice. Methods We collected all the published clinical studies on puerarin for angina pectoris from 1966 to October 2003, and assessed all the included reports according to international clinical epidemiological standard. Results 106 RCTs, 8 non-randomized controlled studies and 24 case series were included and analyzed. 126 studies reported diagnosis criteria, 10 desccribed inclusion criteria; 3 studies were quasi-random, 1 double blind, 4 single blind; no study reported follow-up; 117 studies reported adverse effects. Conclusions Currently the quality of studies on puerarin for angina pectoris is not good enough to provide reliable evidence for clinical practice.
